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Corey Sell

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Corey Sell

Professor of Elementary Education & Chair of the Elementary Education and Literacy Department

School of Education

Office Hours

Tuesday - [02:00 to 05:00]

Thursday - [2:00 to 5:00]

Biography

Corey R. Sell is a Professor of Elementary Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver where he teaches assessment, instruction, and social studies methods courses. He joined the faculty in the fall of 2015 and in May 2018 was awarded the Faculty Senate Excellence in Teaching Award for tenure-track faculty. His research interests include teacher preparation and retention, elementary social studies, and pre-service teacher knowledge development. He values school-university partnerships within his work in teacher preparation publishing several book chapters and co-editing a book on the topic. He advocates for elevating the status of social studies, focusing specifically on the teaching of disciplinary literacy and historical inquiry to elementary students. His work has been published in several journals including Social Studies and the Young Learner and The Social Studies. He aims to develop pre- and in-service teachers鈥� interest in and knowledge of elementary social studies curriculum within his methods courses by studying his own teaching, which has led to a book chapter and a research publication within the Social Studies Journal. Prior to earning his PhD in Education from George Mason University in May 2013, he was an elementary classroom teacher in Virginia for 12 years.

Research Interests

    teacher preparation and retention, elementary social studies, and pre-service teacher knowledge development

Teaching Interests

    I understand teaching to be relational, dialogic, contextual, and intellectual. First, teaching is a relational act, because it begins with a student-teacher relationship. From this space, student growth becomes the focus of my thinking and the impetus for my teaching behavior. Second, in line with Vygotsky鈥檚 (1978) notion of learning as a social endeavor, I believe teaching to be dialogic in nature. Borrowing from Alexander (2006) I define dialogic teaching as a collective, reciprocal, and supportive process of learning that results in the co-construction of knowledge. The teacher guides the learning towards intentional goals but doesn鈥檛 prescribe the particular path for the students and themselves to follow. Third, I believe teaching to be contextual in that learning is situated and requires components of both theory and practice. Connecting theory to a more immediate utility of that theory, i.e. practice, shifts learning of knowledge from an abstract plane to a more concrete plane and it is within this space that students have something concrete to practice or enact within real-world situations鈥攚hich further develops their understanding of both theory and practice. Lastly, I believe teaching to be an intellectual endeavor that requires constant reflection upon one鈥檚 practice, which should result in immediate adjustments.

Education

PhD in Teaching & Teacher Education

George Mason University

Other in Curriculum & Instruction

University of Virginia

BA in American Studies

University of Mary Washington

Published Works

    Sell, R. C., Drake Patrick, J. . Hear It; Draw It; Know It Strategy. (). . Sell, R. C., Leu Bonanno, S., Pettit, J. (2025). Transformative ruptures towards social justice teaching: Theorizing ways inservice teachers shift towards deeper forms of critical consciousness. Teachers 海角直播 Record, 127(9-10), 135-171. . Shapland Rodriguez, D., Sell, R. C. (2024). Teaching Bayard Rustin to Kindergarteners: A Collaborative Self-Study into the Planning Process of a Queer Counternarrative . The Social Studies. Rudnick, D., Sell, R. C. (2024). Challenging the "Happy Slave" Mythos: Reclaming Social Studies Teacher Education with Counternarratives. Black History Bulletin, Sell, R. C., Leu-Bonanno, S. (2024). Uplifting the wisdom and insights of the LGBTQ+ community in the elementary curriculum. Social Studies and the Young Learner, sell, R. C., Furgione, B., Berson, I., Berson, M. (2024). An Inquiry Approach to Planning with Primary Sources. (). . sell, R. C. (2024). Bayard Rustin: Does Your Labor or Label Matter More. (). Library of Congress and National Council for the Social Studies . Furgione, B., sell, R. C., Ellsworth , T. (2024). Welcome to the Wonderful World of Primary Sources! Let's Get Sourcing!. (). . Earley, J., sell, R. C. (2023). Using the Inquiry Design Model to Reveal Pauli Murray鈥檚 Story: A Fierce Advocate and Activist Hidden in the Elementary Curriculum. Social Studies and the Young Learner. sell, R. C., Rodriguez , N. N. (2023). Who's responsible for the food on my plate? . (). National Council for the Social Studies. Sell, R. C., Shapland Rodriguez, D., Klein-Callea, C., Ernst, M. (2023). Teaching Beyond Curricular Certainty: Telling Bayard Rustin鈥檚 story to Kindergarteners. Social Studies and the Young Learner, sell, R. C., Leu Bonanno, S. (2022). Understanding the Stonewall Riots through Intersectionality . (). Emerald Publishing Limited. Sell, R. C. (2019). What it takes to stay: Three stories of teacher retention. (pp 93-119). Information Age Publishing . Sell, R. C., Schmaltz, J., Hartman, S. (2018). We Came to Colorado: Third Graders Inquire into the Past to Honor Their Present. Social Studies and the Young Learner, Sell, R. C. (2017). Elementary social studies pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teaching and learning. Social Studies Journal, 37(2), 36-48. . Parsons, A. S., Groth, A. L., Parker, K. A., Brown, L. E., Sell, R. C., Sprague, D. (2017). Elementary teacher preparation at George Mason University: Evolution of our program. (pp 109-124). Rowan & Littlefield. Sell, R. C., Bernhardt, E. P. (2017). Teachers鈥� as decision makers: Using document-based activity structure (DBAS) to create social studies curriculum. (pp 193-198). Information Age Publishing. Sell, R. C., Griffin, K. (2017). Powerful social studies teaching with poetry and primary sources. The Social Studies, Zenkov, K., Pellegrino, A., Sell, R. C., Ewaida, M., Bell, A., Fell, M., Biernesser, S., McManis, M. (2014). Picturing kids and 鈥渒ids鈥� as researchers: Preservice teachers and effective writing instructions for diverse youth and English language learners. The New Educator, 10(4), 306-330. . Pellegrino , A., Zenkov, K., Sell, R. C., Calamito, N. (2014). Lifting as we climb: A citizenship project in a professional development setting. School-University Partnerships, 7(1), 64-84. . Zenkov, K., Pellegrino, A., Harmon, J., Ewaida, M., Bell, A., Lynch, M., Sell, R. C. (2013). Picturing culturally relevant literacy practices: Using photography to see how literacy curricula and pedagogies matter to urban youth. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 15(2), 1-20. . Samaras, P. A., Sell, R. C. (2013). Please write: Using critical friend letter writing in teacher research. Teacher Education Quarterly, 40(4), 93-109. . Zenkov, K., Ewaida, M., Lynch, M., Bell, A., Harmon, J., Pellegrino, A., Sell , C. (2013). Shooting back and 鈥榣ooking for life鈥� in the USA and Haiti: Seeing the ethics of visual research methods through a development lens. . International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 37(1), 63-86. . Zenkov, K., Corrigan, D., Beebe, R., Sell, R. C. (2013). Professional development schools and social justice: Schools and universities partnering to make a difference. Lexington Books, Zenkov, K., Corrigan, D., Beebe, R., Sell, R. C., Sells, S. (2013). The master of urban secondary teaching (MUST) program: A case study. (pp 13-26). Lexington Books. Zenkov, K., Corrigan, D., , B. R., Sell, C. (2013). Professional Development Schools (PDSs) and Social Juistice Education: Alternative Notions of 'Quality' for Future City Teachers. School-University Partnerships, 6(1), 15-32. .